Disarmed
by InkOnTheParchment
Summary: Severus Snape is used to his lonely life down in the dungeons. What happens when a woman enters the scene and disarms him with her sincerity and friendship? SSHG
1. Grand Entrance

Disclaimer: The majority of the characters do not belong to me. If you happen to meet someone you have not yet met in J.K. Rowling's books, then that character does belong to me. The storyline and ideas expressed here similarly belong to me.

This is an SSHG fan fic, so if you despise the pairing, I am warning you now: do not read and then send me comments saying that the pairing is disgusting. For those of you who are SSHG fans, or do not mind SSHG fan fiction – I hope you enjoy this one!

This fic is rated R for future chapters. It may contain language, violence, and yes, sex.

I love receiving feedback, so please leave some for me. I like to know that my work is appreciated and I love hearing what you think about it. Constructive criticism is welcome as well. The bottom line is – leave some feedback! insertsmileyfacehere

Chapter 1 

It was a bleak sort of day; drops of water came down from the sky in a steady drizzle, and gray clouds blocked the ray of the sun, covering the earth in a dark cloak. The lush greenery of Hogwarts swayed in the slight summer breeze, sinking in places due to the softness of the mud beneath it. Rain beat persistently against a glass pane in the main doors to the castle, creating a monotonous tapping sound expressive of the dreariness of the day.

The man behind that window pane stood gazing at the actions of Nature; silent, absorbed, he stood almost entirely motionless. As the glass fogged up to the extent that it obscured his view of the grounds, he raised a long-fingered slender hand, drawing a small circle on level with his eyes, through which he continued to peer.

The man's brooding face was reflected in the glass, surrounded by waves of strikingly black hair that swept his shoulders. His somber dark eyes reflected a spark of light from the lit lantern in his left hand. His mouth was set in a thin, forbidding line, adding to the sinister look his hooked nose created.

The man was none other than Severus Snape, Potions Master of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, undercover agent for the Order of the Phoenix, and at the present moment, the man assigned to escort the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor to her rooms as soon as he would see her apparate beyond the perimeter of the Hogwarts grounds.

"Severus, may I bother you to go out to the main doors a few minutes before seven? Our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is scheduled to arrive at that time, and I would be very grateful to you if you took her luggage and escorted her to her rooms. I am, most unfortunately, obligated to leave now. I won't be back until after dinner, and I give you the responsibility to make her feel welcome and attend to her needs in my absence."

Dumbledore's intense blue eyes peered at Snape from the fire in the younger professor's room.

"Do I have a choice?" said Snape, evidently most displeased.

He was sitting in his study, in an elegantly-engraved armchair whose seat was draped in emerald green cloth. A thick tome was resting open on his lap. He had evidently been perusing it when the headmaster's head had appeared in his fireplace unexpectedly.

"No," replied Dumbledore calmly, "you don't particularly have a choice, since Minerva is busy organizing schedules for the new school year, and the rest of the teachers are supposed to arrive only tomorrow."

"Who is this new professor?" demanded Snape.

He had been denied the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher once again, and the fact that some unknown professor who wouldn't even be able to carry his own luggage to his rooms got the job irked him.

"Ask her, and I'm sure she'll tell," answered the old man, promptly disappearing from the fire without any further goodbye.

Professor Snape, with an aggravated sign, checked the time on an old mahogany clock handing on the wall above the fireplace. It was a quarter past six, and the clock steadily ticked the minutes away.

He slammed the book he was holding shut and threw it down on his desk.

_So the new professor was a _she_. Some woman got the job instead of him._ His angry thoughts raged inside his head.

There was a small cabinet in the corner of the room, with glass doors and brass handles. To this cabinet he strode with impatient large steps. Throwing its doors open, he wrapped his fingers around a crystal decanter, which was filled with an amber liquid that sparkled invitingly.

He poured himself a glass, examining it carefully as the liquid flowed from the container into the glass. Apparently, it passed the inspection and earned the man's approval, for he lifted it to his lips and with a stiff movement, tipped the contents into his mouth. He paused a moment, not moving as the burning liquid traveled down his throat.

It was at times like those that he was glad of the existence of firewhiskey.

The glass was quickly _scourgified_ and returned to its place, and the man was returned (by his own will) to the armchair.

With a flick of his wand, the fire in the fireplace went out, and within a few minutes, the temperature in the dungeons went down to the familiar coolness that he was accustomed to.

His concentration having disappeared when the headmaster had popped in, Professor Snape abandoned his book and stood back up again.

He had more than half an hour before the arrival of the damned professor, but that time was not enough to become reabsorbed in his book or complete the lesson plans for the new curriculum. Due to the creation of new potions that were considered useful and important enough by the Ministry of Magic to be taught to students, Professor Snape had to alter his fifth, sixth, and seventh year lesson plans. This, apparently, was not the time for it.

Pacing back and forth, he waited until the clock indicated that it was a few minutes more than half past. He made his way out of the stone dungeons, grabbing a lantern on his way out.

The castle was deathly silent; there were no loud footsteps hurrying down the corridors–only Snape's steady soft steps, which sounded no louder than a cat's as the professor stalked through the hallways of the school. The chatter of exuberant young voices was conspicuously missing too–Snape's rhythmic breathing and the occasional curses he muttered under his breath were nowhere near as resonant as the sounds the students usually made. He walked freely through the school, not having to make his way through throngs of students.

And now, here he stood. The chimes of the Hogwarts clock rang out through the stillness of the evening, signifying the arrival of seven o'clock. He peered out into the distance, waiting for a figure to appear beyond the castle's gates.

A few seconds passed, noted Severus Snape to himself with ill-concealed irritation on his face.

_If that woman thought she could be late and he would still be there, waiting to be of service to her, she was sorely mistaken,_ thought he. Dumbledore's command meant nothing to him once the appointed time would pass.

He wiped the glass pane he was looking through and let his eye roam the grounds.

A sliver of the moon peeked out from behind a collection of clouds, illuminating part of the ground.

Suddenly, a distant dark shape appeared in the spotlight of the moon. The person was wearing a black clock, which, despite the light of the moon, caused the person to have the appearance of standing in the shadows. Resting on the ground next to the figure were two round trunks, bolted securely, and a small cage with a rope attached to it. The other end of the rope was held by the hooded figure.

She (for we presume, based on Dumbledore's information, that it was in fact a she) was about to take a step towards the gates, but tripping over the cage, clumsily fell onto the muddy ground in a shameful heap.

* * *

Next chapter coming soon.

Please don't forget to leave feedback! This is the first SSHG story I am posting on and I want to know what y'all think of it so far.


	2. Nice to Meet You

Here is the second chapter, finally! I meant to put it up on Saturday, but I ended up being more preoccupied than I had planned, and was obligated to push off this update until today. 

A few words before I continue, though. Firstly, I forgot to mention that this fic is not HBP or DH compliant. It is, however, more or less OotP compliant. 

I'm kind of new to this, so I was having problems with formatting. Therefore, what should have been a flashback in the middle of the second chapter ended up looking just like a part of one big chapter. The part where Dumbledore began to speak to Snape was the beginning of the flashback. I'm sorry for any confusion that might have caused. I just wanted to clear that up now before going further. 

A huge thank you to all my readers and reviewers. Responses are at the bottom of the chapter. 

And now, without further ado, here is:

Chapter 2

With a silent internal snicker and an external smirk, Snape pushed open the main doors of Hogwarts and stepped out into the fresh, moist summer air. 

"Serves you right for claiming my precious time," he muttered nastily under his breath, striding forward to the gates which separated the woman from her new job. 

He had cast a water-repelling charm on himself, and the raindrops, as they descended, swerved aside to avoid hitting him. 

He murmured quickly the enchantments to unlock the gates, and they swung open with a dull click. 

She looked up at him, her small face smeared with mud and the larger part of her cloak in an even worse condition. Her hood had fallen away, revealing a cascade of brown windswept curls, the ends of which trailed in the mud.

Snape stretched his free hand out to the woman, and she gratefully grasped it with her own small one. He helped her to her feet, afterwards wiping the dirt off his hand by rubbing it against his robes. 

She straightened herself up, making a futile attempt at brushing the mud from her cloak.

"Thank you, Professor Snape," she said, her cheeks turning a delicate shade of pink as she bent down to pick up the rope she had dropped. She coiled it around her hand and reached for the trunks.

"Leave them," said Snape, drawing his wand. "I'll bring them inside. He made a movement with his wand, drawling an incantation. Her trunks rose into the air, hovering between them. The woman picked up the cage, careful not to press its dirty base to her body.

The two walked back to the castle in relative silence. 

"I'll show you to your rooms," said Snape once they were in the castle. 

The woman followed him as he walked through the corridors and up and down staircases on a long and winding path. At last, he stopped before a portrait of a woman dressed in red medieval clothes and bearing a sword. 

"Carpe diem," Snape pronounced clearly. The portrait swung open, revealing the entrance to a set of rooms. 

"These are your rooms," he said to the woman standing behind him as he levitated her trunks in through the doorway, leaving them there. "If you need anything, you may contact me. You can find me in the dungeons, where my rooms are, or you can use the Floo network. I'm Severus Snape. Just say 'Severus's rooms' to the Floo and it'll get you there. Dinner is at seven in the Great Hall. We passed by it on our way to your rooms."

"I know," she replied quietly, setting down the cage she had been holding and opening the little door to it. "Thank you, Pro- uh- Severus."

His eyebrow rose. "Are we acquainted?" he questioned, examining her face to see if he could find something familiar in it.

"I daresay we are," she said in return. "You just told me you are Severus Snape."

"You knew my name before I told you."

"Yes, I did."

"And will you let me know your name?"

"I think you know it."

She turned away from him and unbuttoned her cloak, took it off, and hung it on a hook near the entrance. She was wearing a brown shirt with a scooped neck and large buttons going down the front. It revealed her slender, womanly figure and smooth skin. 

Snape was further surprised to see that she wore casual black jeans, instead of the customary formal pants and skirts that most female professors wore.

She turned back to face him, looking much cleaner and neater without the dirty rain cloak. 

"I still do not know who you are, and I feel reluctant to leave a stranger in Hogwarts without knowing their identity," he drawled, his eyes boring into her. 

"You need not worry about that, Severus," she answered, smiling at the orange fur-ball that had stepped out of the cage and was now rubbing at her legs between hisses at the intimidating man standing in the doorway.

Snape wrinkled his nose in disdain, staring down at the cat.

"It seems you do not realize that while the headmaster is away, I am in charge of your situation and can therefore deny you these rooms if you do not reveal who you are," he spoke, fixing his glare back on the woman and ignoring the disgruntled cat's noises.

"Oh, actually, you do not have that right," she replied with a false sweetness. "Professor Dumbledore has given me express permission to take my set of rooms without saying a word. In fact, I have written permission from him to assume a role of authority as a teacher as soon as I arrive. You, therefore, do not have the authority to remove me from these rooms. Indeed, Professor Dumbledore did not inform me that you would be here when I arrived."

Snape's eyebrows rose so high at her audacity, they were in danger of disappearing into his hairline. No doubt, the man was not accustomed to being spoken to in such a manner and did not know quite how to respond. Therefore, he made no verbal reply.

The woman pushed her trunks further into the room after cleaning the dried mud off them with a quick spell. Similarly, she cleaned the cage's exterior and stored it in a nook behind the door. 

She stuck her wand back in the pocket of her jeans, with the end sticking out, available as soon as she would need it. She poked her head in through a half-open door at the end of the room, still in Snape's view. 

"Oh!" she exclaimed, more to herself than to anyone else. "This one is even better than the prefect's bathroom!"

Snape sighed to himself. 

He watched her walk into the bathroom and close the door behind her. Five minutes later, she exited, her face no longer dirty. Her delicate skin was pink from being scrubbed, but overall, it was a definite improvement over the appearance she had presented when Snape first saw her.

"Oh, you're still standing there," she observed, addressing the man stiffly standing in her doorway in the same position as he had been in when he first helped her get her trunks into the room.

He gave her a curt nod. 

"Well in that case, do come in. I'll conjure some tea from the kitchen and we'll catch up. We have some time until dinner, no?" She smiled. "Either way, I doubt Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall will mind if we decide to take dinner here instead of with them."

"I have a busy schedule for tonight, and I am afraid I do not have the time to have tea and dinner with a stranger. Professor Dumbledore will not be here until after dinner, and it would be impolite to leave Minerva to dine by herself, even though the option of altogether avoiding dinner companions appeals to me. 

"Why, Severus, do I detect you actually being concerned for someone?" she teased. Assuming a more serious expression, she said, "Please, either come in, or leave. I want to close the door."

He contemplated for a moment and stepped in.

She snapped her fingers and said clearly, "Tea, please."

With a low popping sound, a tea set appeared on the table in her room. Steam was rising out of the teapot in curled ribbons, disappearing into the air as it gained in altitude.

"Make yourself comfortable," she said, indicating the chair opposite her own at the table in the sitting room. He followed her to the table, and they both sat down.

"I'll just let Professor McGonagall know I'm here and that we won't be joining her for dinner. I have no doubt that she is anyway too busy for a social gathering or a long conversation, since she couldn't meet me. I have much to catch up on, but I doubt she would appreciate spending hours talking when she undoubtedly has many things to do before the students' arrival."

"If you think I have nothing to do–" began Snape indignantly.

"No, no, nothing of the sort. Here," she smiled, pouring him a cup of tea. "Add sugar, lemon, whatever–to your liking. I'll only be gone two minutes."

True to her word, she was gone and back through the Floo in only a matter of a couple of minutes.

She returned to find Snape staring intently at his untouched cup of tea. When he heard her light footsteps behind him, he turned his head.

"I haven't poisoned it, you know," remarked the young woman.

Ignoring her statement, he inquired, "Who are you?"

"You know me!"

"I do not, unless you are under the disguise of a Polyjuice Potion and are truly a Death Eater or a Ministry hag. I don't even know which is worse at the moment."

To his surprise, the woman burst out in laughter; resonant, full of sincere mirth, and so infectious that Severus Snape actually managed half a smile.

"No, Prof–oh, sorry–Severus," she stumbled.

She looked at his face, marveling at the opportunity to talk to this man as though she were a complete stranger. It was so different from her usual conversations with the sour Potions Master that she was reluctant to go back to their usual relationship. It was a childish idea to keep her name from him though, and she fully knew how ridiculous it was. However, the best of us like to sometimes talk under the protection of anonymity, even if the shield is discarded before too long.

She poured herself a cup of tea and left it on the table, waiting for it to cool down a bit.

"I've missed Hogwarts," she mused, addressing her companion. "It seems like ages since I've been here last."

Snape remained silent.

"It feels good to be back her to teach," she continued. "I apologize for my former rudeness to you–especially in view of the fact that you were so kind as to help me to my rooms. I just don't take too well to being threatened by one who is now in no position of authority over me–no offense meant, Severus. Hopefully, we can forget the past and act towards each other like the colleagues that we are. Since you already 'introduced' yourself, I shall do the same."

He inclined his head slightly, encouraging her to go on.

"I'm Hermione. Hermione Granger. Nice to meet you." Grinning, she stuck out her hand.

* * *

Jessirose85, balmung's angel, Sonseeahray, Crimsonwulfe, and Spiderweed and Silverdew, thank you for your reviews! 

Silverdew, thanks for pointing that out to me. I proofread it before posting it, but it seems that my eyes skimmed over it haphazardly. I re-read the second chapter more carefully before posting, so hopefully there shouldn't be any typos here. It would be amusing though if she were indeed wearing a black clock. 


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